


Too Close for Comfort

by Princess of Geeks (Princess)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Bodyswap, Cliche, Episode Related, First Time, Holiday, M/M, Past and Present, Romance, Season 2, Season 3, canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-15
Updated: 2010-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:39:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess/pseuds/Princess%20of%20Geeks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to dragojustine, thady and catspaw for beta duties. And to C., who held my hand far beyond the call of duty and actually wrote one scene!</p><p>Written for the 2008 Jack/Daniel Ficathon on LiveJournal.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lerah99](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lerah99).



> Thanks to dragojustine, thady and catspaw for beta duties. And to C., who held my hand far beyond the call of duty and actually wrote one scene!
> 
> Written for the 2008 Jack/Daniel Ficathon on LiveJournal.

Tuesday morning was cold and rainy, and the rain was the reason Jack was at his desk early, with two-thirds of a cup of McDonald's coffee at his elbow, tackling the much-loathed paperwork and waiting for his stomach to wake up. Getting his bicycle out in the pouring rain had not been appealing in the least, so he'd foregone his workout at home and headed on over to the mountain, where it was always a dependable 68 degrees Fahrenheit and rain was never forecast. Pretty soon, after some pancakes, he'd find Teal'c, and spar with him a little, instead of biking. Maybe hit the weights after. He signed a form and put it in his OUT box. And another. And another. And scanned the budget form he'd started filling in the previous week. Getting into the next section would take some research. He sighed.

_Or, breakfast now_, he thought, glancing at his watch. And, come to think of it, Teal'c would probably go for breakfast before sparring. Keep the blood sugar up and all that. Jack reached for the phone on the corner of his cluttered desk, and as he did, it rang.

"Colonel! Glad to find you there!" The voice was unfamiliar, and the readout on the phone showed an unfamiliar extension. Close to Carter's, so up the hall from her lab, maybe? The guy must have sensed Jack's pause for what it was: confusion. "It's Doctor Bill Lee. You might not remember me? Research and development?"

"Doctor Lee, sure." Jack rolled his eyes. This couldn't be good.

"I wonder if you could come up to nineteen for a moment. I have something I need your help with. I don't suppose the rest of SG-1...?"

"Carter might be there; why don't you put your head out in the hall and see if there's an eerie blue glow coming from next door?"

"Um, sure, I could do that, if you think she's in her lab at this hour. Yeah...um..."

"Daniel's not due in until oh-nine-hundred. Teal'c, he could be kelno'reem-ing."

"No, no, no blue glow. Not that I can see, anyway. You're sure it should be a blue glow I'm looking for?"

"That was a joke, Doctor Lee. I'll be right there."

Jack put the phone back in its cradle, stretched, and stood up. See what the geek wanted, get some breakfast, find Teal'c. It was a plan. Then he'd be awake and fortified for the rest of his paperwork. Maybe he could get Daniel to keep him company when he tackled the budget. That would make the time go faster -- flirting with his hot archaeologist and picking his brain at the same time. Though he really knew better than to put it in those terms, even to himself. _O'Neill, you're slipping. So. Another batch of paperwork, another day of keeping Daniel at arm's length. It's a living._

When he swung into Lee's lab, hands in his pockets, he recoiled at what he saw.

"Oh, hi, Colonel, if you could just... Well, the plan was to have the entire complement of your team here, but I guess..."

The scientist was fluttering around, a clipboard in one hand and a portable circuit-tester in the other. Goggles were perched on his wrinkled forehead, and he wore heavy rubber gloves.

"Doctor Lee? Why in the _hell_ do you have that body-swap machine in here?"

"Well, you see, we had to get it out of storage anyway, because we're needing those rooms past the elevator shaft converted into lab space for the Tok'ra crystals we're testing, and so I just thought it would be a good opportunity to see if I could make any more progress on understanding its operation, and well..."

Lee bustled over to a computer on a rolling rack, setting aside his clipboard and his circuit tester and pulling off his gloves to gesture at the wave forms scrolling along the screen. Jack drifted closer, feeling relieved now that Lee was out of arm's reach of the body-swapping machine's long, thick handles. He shook his head in annoyance, because the readout meant nothing to him. He'd have to get Carter on this, try to talk Lee out of this hare-brained research. That was the thing about scientists -- the idea of "leave well enough alone" never occurred to them. Lee babbled on. "Well, I must say, if I do say so myself, that I've had a breakthrough." Lee gestured at the monitor, beaming. "A breakthrough. Yes, yes, I don't believe that's too strong a word, under the circumstances."

"A breakthrough?"

"I've managed to reverse the polarity on the device, and in doing so, I do believe I have pinpointed the method for getting it to perform its consciousness-transference process in reverse, which is why I'm calling it a breakthrough, because, as you know, the creator of the machine claimed that couldn't be done." Lee paused expectantly, so that Jack could praise him, but Jack just stared. "So, under the circumstances, I thought it would be most efficient to ask the members of SG-1 who participated in the exchange the first time, since, you know--"

"What?!"

"You have the best empirical knowledge, after all, and we could compare--"

Jack smiled. It was not a happy smile. "Well, I'm afraid you're out of luck, Doctor, because it was Daniel and me who were last swapped, and he's not here. Isn't that just too bad. Teal'c swapped with both Machello and me, IF memory serves."

"Oh. Well. It would be most useful if Doctor Jackson were here, but.... Then, well, you and I are here. We could go ahead and test it. Move on to the next step, instead of doing a reversal, you know." Lee looked hopeful. But this was too much for Jack. Daniel and Teal'c had both come within minutes of dying, trapped in that megalomaniac's body.

"If you think for one little minute that, after that train wreck we went through before, I'm going to let you take this thing--"

To make his point, Jack slapped the nearest handle of the device, which should have been perfectly safe, since he was the only person within five feet. But apparently not. Cut off in mid-rant, he collapsed to the floor.

"Colonel O'Neill," Lee said plaintively, leaning over him. "Colonel O'Neill? Oh, this is not good." He lunged at the wall to slap the emergency button, then went for the phone.

^^^^

Nineteen floors up, Daniel was coming in early to the SGC because he'd discovered something exciting about the stele on PX3-487 in the wee hours of the morning and realized a couple of hours after that, that the reference he really needed was at the mountain. He could put in some work before things got busy and his phone began to ring and his inbox began to fill with requests for help with translations or interpreting data from the MALP cameras. And he could always count on Jack to interrupt him, too, although that was actually the pleasant kind of distraction. But Daniel figured Jack would appear today a little later than usual, since they had no mission scheduled and Jack was probably seeking any excuse he could think of to avoid his looming paperwork.

Daniel let himself think about that for a minute, how Jack would smile with one corner of his mouth, when he leaned in Daniel's door, almost-flirting, maddening, and way, way too attractive. Then he'd deliberately try to distract Daniel by juggling the breakable things on his desk. Yeah, it was a good thing Daniel was coming in early, if he wanted to get a jump on figuring out the 487 inscription. Jack's company on-base was always a simmering temptation, and one that Daniel schooled himself to ignore. The work he did here was every bit as critical as the work he did off world. Jack, however, loved the off-world parts of the job approximately twelve times as much as the on-world parts. He had no qualms about trying to suck Daniel into his procrastination whenever he had paperwork.

Precariously clutching both a lidded Starbucks cup and his heavy briefcase in his left hand, he signed in at the second elevator and stepped over to it, waiting for the heavy doors to slide open. As they did, and as he stepped over the threshold, a shock wave swept him. It was cold and dizzying, rather like being hit with a jolt of electricity. He staggered, nearly dropping his coffee, and caught a shoulder against the elevator wall. He shook his head to clear it and reached for the button for Level 18.

_"Crap,"_ the thought came, crisp and resigned. _"Better make it twenty-one."_

Daniel did a mental double-take. Without pondering why he was doing so, he spoke aloud. "I don't need to go to the infirmary. I'm going to my lab."

Resigned determination. _"Oh, yes you do."_

Too many weird experiences in his recent history not to catch the strange flavor of this inner, well ... dialogue. Daniel closed his eyes and leaned, again, on the wall of the still-descending elevator.

"Jack?" he said, warily.

_"Who else? Present and accounted for."_ The answer was definitely inside Daniel's head.

"Uh, what is going on?" Daniel spoke carefully and calmly.

_"Oh, you're gonna love this."_

The doors opened on Level 21, and Daniel was met by a medical team with a crash cart, who changed places with him with barely a greeting. Looking over his shoulder, Daniel headed for the infirmary. Inside his head, he received an impression of smoldering impatience.

He frowned, glanced around, and chose a bare cot that he figured, from long practice, would be close to the center of the action. He put his briefcase on the floor and sipped his coffee and waited. A nurse walked by and gave him a puzzled glance.

"Jack?"

_"Mm?"_

"Just checking."

In a few minutes, a bustle developed outside. An unconscious Jack arrived, lying on a gurney. Nurses swarmed him, the group soon joined by Doctor Fraiser. Finally Lee appeared, hovering and looking miserable.

Daniel put down his cup and stood. "Doctor Lee."

"Oh, Doctor Jackson, there you are. If only you'd been here earlier, perhaps we could have... I probably should have acted more quickly to stop the colonel, but, well, there's always a chance, you know, that..."

"Doctor Lee, what was Jack doing, exactly, that caused him to be brought here? And is he all right?"

_"I can tell you all about that. And, no, I'm not all right._"

Daniel resisted the urge to say, "Could you hang on a second, Jack," out loud, because he was pretty sure Lee would think he was nuts, but then he had to wonder if Jack could hear the unspoken words anyway, because Jack ... did. He was quiet, and he waited.

Daniel and Lee watched Janet check under Jack's eyelids, and record his breathing and his pulse, calling out her findings. Nurses hooked Jack up to monitors.

"_Fraiser's Penlight of Evil! I swear she doesn't shine it into your eyes as long -- or with the cruel delight that she uses on me."_

Lee stuttered, "Uh, we were considering how best to approach the breakthrough I've made with Machello's device for exchanging consciousness. You see, I've ascertained that it's reversing the polarity that will do the trick, at least that's the hypothesis, and I was going to get Colonel O'Neill to help me do some tests. But..."

"Jack didn't want to help you?"

"Well, I don't think so."

"What happened?" Daniel glanced up to see that Janet had caught the tenor of their conversation and was now listening intently.

"He touched the device. By mistake. And then..." Lee flapped a hand toward Jack's body. Janet had proclaimed him unconscious, but breathing, and with a strong pulse and a normal temperature.

"Well," Daniel breathed. "This isn't quite so crazy, then."

_"Not crazy? That's a relief, lemme tell you."_ The sarcasm was potent.

Daniel winced. "Janet? I think I've got Jack ... here."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Here." Daniel tapped his forehead. "Right here." Turning away from her shocked expression, Daniel said, "You'd better start from the beginning, Doctor Lee, and tell us exactly what you did with the machine. Before Jack got there, I mean."

Lee took a deep breath, then dropped his gaze to his toes. Janet was already on the phone, calling the general.

The hastily convened briefing of Hammond was conducted around Jack's infirmary bed, instead of at the conference-room table. Daniel stood near Jack's head, arms folded, trying to keep his gaze from fastening on Jack's quiet face.

He concluded, "In short, General, it seems clear that, even though no one was holding the second set of arms on Machello's device, it still, perhaps because of the increase in power that Doctor Lee had fed into it, did attempt to reverse the last transfer it made, which was between Jack and me."

"Is that a fair assessment, Doctor Lee?"

"Yes, sir," Lee seemed a little cowed by the attention, but not by the implications of what he'd done. "Or, you know, it might not be because of the previous transfer after all. It might be similar to the way transport rings will lock onto the nearest signal. Perhaps there are analogies that I could test in that respect..." he trailed off again, thinking.

"What would have happened had Doctor Jackson not been nearby?"

There was a pause. "I have no idea," Daniel and Lee said, simultaneously.

"_Oh, great. That's just great._"

Hammond sighed. "But at the present time you don't have any way of reversing the effects? Putting the colonel back where he belongs?"

Lee said, reluctantly, "Well, not without more study."

"Doctor Fraiser, is Colonel O'Neill's physical body in any immediate danger?"

"Not that I can see, sir. He appears to be stable, and resting comfortably. I hesitate to call it a coma, sir. It's like he's very deeply asleep."

" '_Resting comfortably', my ass."_

"Doctor Lee, I want you to get Captain Carter's help on this as soon as she reports in. You're dismissed, except for Doctor Jackson."

Lee scuttled away with an air of humiliated nervousness.

Hammond said, "I assume Doctor Fraiser's next step will be to look for objective evidence that Jack's consciousness has been transported into you."

"Oh, no doubt," Daniel said, trying to make it light.

"_I'm here, all right. And nice as the digs are, it's just not like the comforts of home, you know?"_

"Have you tried to let Colonel O'Neill speak through you? When your bodies were swapped, that was apparently quite easy to do. Use the swapped bodies, I mean, just as if they were your own bodies." The general had that slightly hysterical look that coping with the realities of alien encounters sometimes gave him. That "I can't believe I just said that" look.

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "I really haven't. It's clear he can see, and hear everything that's said around me -- us -- but..."

"_Give it a try?_"

Daniel said, "Yes, let's." Hammond looked confused. "I was, uh, talking to Jack, sir."

Hammond looked expectant. Daniel tried to relax and offer a mental invitation. Jack seemed to ... stretch.

"Nothing's happening," Daniel said.

_"Nada. Zip. I got nothin'."_

Hammond sighed yet again. "I'd like you to stay on base until this is resolved, Doctor Jackson. And check in with the infirmary if there's the slightest sign that something is going wrong."

"Yes, sir."

Hammond's glance lingered on Jack's sleeping face, and he shook his head. As he left the infirmary, Daniel heard him mutter, "What next."

Daniel sank into the chair next to Jack's bed, glancing at the monitor. Heartbeat steady and slow, respiration and blood pressure normal.

"Well, this sucks," Daniel said.

_"Tell me about it."_

Daniel propped an arm on the chair and leaned his head on his fist. _Can you hear me like this? I feel like a cell phone commercial._

"_Loud and clear."_

_Crazy.... You know, this would really, really suck if it were permanent._

"_Carter will think of something."_ Jack's tone was confident, almost smug. Daniel was tempted to argue, to kick around scenarios, but Janet appeared before he could begin.

"Now that I'm reasonably sure the colonel's physical body is stable, I'd like to run some more tests on you, please."

Daniel submitted to the inevitable.

Janet proclaimed Daniel to be normal in nearly every particular, and she was disappointed that she couldn't find any incontrovertible evidence of Jack's consciousness. The only possible sign was a slight increase in Daniel's brain activity compared to the baseline tests she had on file. But there were various possible causes for that that had nothing to do with Jack. When she finally released Daniel, he hesitated, and, not knowing what else to do, sat down again by Jack's sleeping form. He looked so peaceful. But peaceful or not, all Daniel wanted was for Jack to wake up as himself again. Daniel pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"_Don't you have some inscriptions to read or something? Something about a stele and 487 and demotic? 'Cause, I'm telling you, sitting here next to myself like this is kinda creepy."_

_Creepy, huh? Interesting choice of words.... And yes, as a matter of fact, I found what appeared to be a very early influence of-- Wait a minute -- you picked that out of my thoughts, out of the, the background noise. I didn't SAY that to you._

"_So?"_

"Doctor Jackson?" It was one of Janet's assistants. "Captain Carter would like you to join her in Doctor Lee's lab."

"_Yes!"_

"Here we go," Daniel muttered. Out loud, this time.

"_Back to the scene of the crime..."_

Daniel had to smile. Jack's running commentary on things was very similar to what Jack would say if he were in his own skin, just like normal. Taking things, even flat-out crazy things, in stride. Being optimistic. Focusing on the solution, not the problem. It made Daniel feel a little better.

In the lab, Lee and Sam were watching wave forms crawl across a monitor. A tangle of wires and leads was strung over to the body-swapping machine. Sam turned when she heard Daniel's footsteps and his single knock at the doorjamb.

"Daniel! Thanks for coming so quickly."

"Well, I guess you could say I'm eager for this to be resolved."

"I imagine. And the colonel's okay, too, I hope?"

"Apparently."

"_Using the term 'okay' very loosely!"_

"So. I'm to understand that Colonel O'Neill's consciousness was swapped into yours, again, like the first time, but without yours moving the other way--"

"--because, best guess, I was nowhere near the machine," Daniel finished. Sam nodded, looking thoughtful.

"_That's my geeks. Couldn't have said it shorter myself. Now can we get to the part where we kiss it and make it better? Please?"_

Daniel tried to offer wordless comfort. Maybe it would cover up his real message, which was something along the lines of, "Shut up, Jack!" He needed to concentrate and help Sam, however he could. He needed to focus. Too much was at stake for him to give in to Jack's distractions here. They needed to solve this. And on a purely personal level, this situation could get way too uncomfortable, fast. Not that he had all that many secrets from Jack, but... some stones were better left unturned. He resolutely visualized the stones. Heavy, big, thick ones. Un-turnable.

Sam was saying, "And Teal'c and you were both in the mountain at the time?"

"That's right."

"Bill, do you have a theory about why the colonel's consciousness was transferred into Daniel and not into Teal'c?"

"Well, it would seem, at least it's plausible, that the machine was in fact trying to reverse the last switch, which Colonel O'Neill reminded me was between him and Doctor Jackson. Unless the machine just locks on to the nearest live body it recognizes that it has a fix for. I guess we'd have to measure how close Doctor Jackson was to the lab compared to Teal'c, or perhaps it would have utilized anybody." Lee scratched his head.

Sam said, "That last can't be right, otherwise it would have used you. You were closest."

"Well, yes."

"I think it's safe to say it was trying to use the same two people it had used in the last swap." Sam scrutinized the data on the screen again. "As near as I can tell, something's out of whack now. The wave structure seems to be out of phase, possibly because you activated it without someone holding on to the other side with Colonel O'Neill."

Lee protested, "But that was an accident! And as I said, Doctor Carter, it really seems to me that the current waveform is an artifact, not of the swapping procedure itself, but of the reversal of polarity."

Sam and Lee lapsed into a conversation that was more math than English. Daniel waited patiently; Jack not so much. Daniel could feel his friend's frustration.

Sam turned to Daniel again. "Guys, bottom line? I know I asked you to come down here, but the more I think about it, the more I'm going to be most comfortable running some simulations with the machine, now that Doctor Lee has figured out how to pull out an actual diagnostic on it, before we try anything with people attached."

"Maybe we could come back later," Daniel said. Jack seemed crestfallen.

They left the two scientists arguing passionately. They went to the commissary, ate some lunch, followed it with pie (Daniel chose the southern pecan as a courtesy, though he really didn't like it, but according to Jack, though he appreciated the gesture, there was nothing much to enjoy -- the sense of taste was extremely attenuated), checked in on Jack's physical body again (no change), and finally, went to Daniel's office, where he attempted to review his own painstakingly compiled bibliography of off-world demotic inscriptions and find the cross-references he was sure he had. But Jack's rising impatience and boredom were extremely distracting.

_Sorry,_ Daniel thought.

_"Me, too."_

_Take a break?_

_"And do what?!"_

"Watch television?" Daniel offered, wanting to break the silence. "Sports?"

_"You'd do that for me? I'm touched."_

Carrying his reference books, Daniel went to the VIP suite he'd been assigned, and sat down to see if he could find a hockey game or a baseball game. Luckily, though he'd never bother to notice this before, the suite had full cable access. And, eureka: There was hockey on ESPN II. As the game went on, it turned out it was more entertaining to listen to Jack's color commentary than the announcers'.

_Funny how you can see everything I can see._

_"Funny's not really the word I would pick."_

Right about the time Daniel was thinking they ought to get back up to the commissary and have some dinner, Sam called them to the infirmary. The machine had been moved to a position near Jack's bed. It brought back unsettling memories of the last time Daniel had been through this, with the dying Machello.

"Okay," she said firmly. "Doctor Lee and I are in agreement that the first thing to try is a swap with the reversal of polarity, because that's our best chance of immediate success, and also, it will tell us if the machine is categorizing this as a swap between two new parties or a reversal of the swap from the first time."

"All right," Daniel said.

"_Did you understand that? You don't have to lie to me."_ Daniel tried not to smile. He was reassured by Jack's utter irrepressibility.

"You wait right there," Sam said to Daniel. The nurses carefully placed Jack's helpless hands on one handle of the device, curling his fingers around it as much as possible, while being extremely careful not to touch the handle themselves.

Daniel took a deep breath, trying to banish his memories of Machello, and stepped up to the opposite handle.

"Ready?" he said.

Sam smiled. "Of course; it's you we were waiting for."

"I meant Jack."

Sam said, "Oh. Right. Sorry."

"_Just do it, willya? The suspense is killing me."_

Daniel grasped the handles firmly.

Nothing happened.

"Okay," Sam said, swallowing. Lee began to pace, back and forth, against the far wall. "That means the machine is categorizing this as a swap, not as a reversal."

"That's impossible. This, that's just wrong," Lee muttered.

"Please remove the colonel's hands from the handle," Sam said. The nurses did so. "Let's set it back to swap instead of reversal. Bill, would you come and double-check?"

Lee knelt beside her, still muttering. Sam bit her bottom lip. Both were extremely careful not to touch the machine on any surface at the same time.

"Okay," Sam said. "Let's try this again."

The nurses curled Jack's limp hands around the handle again and stepped back. Daniel stepped forward, grabbed his handle, and squeezed. Daniel could feel Jack's watchfulness.

Nothing.

"_Stee-rike Two!"_

"Awww," Lee burst out. Daniel slapped the handle in frustration.

"_Ooo, careful there. That's how this whole mess started."_ Flinching, Daniel put his hands in his pockets.

"I'm sorry, guys, but clearly this is going to take a bunch more study. It's just... we'll...." Sam followed Lee out, as he wheeled the machine through the big infirmary doors, back to the elevators.

As they went, Lee was insisting, "We could test the power levels with a new swap with two new people; what we need is some fresh data. I really think the key to this would be fresh data."

"No!" Sam said. "No new swaps!"

Their voices faded. Daniel sat down in the chair by Jack's bed and put his head in his hands.

_"Can I interest you in a little dinner? While away the weary hours with pie?"_

"Might as well," Daniel sighed, and got to his feet and made his way to the commissary again. He filled a tray, not really noticing with what, and wandered across the dining room. A familiar face brightened his mood.

"Hey, Teal'c," Daniel said, sinking into a chair opposite and settling his tray.

"_Meatloaf again?"_

"I hope you and Colonel O'Neill are well, Daniel Jackson."

"So you've heard about Jack's latest mishap?"

"I have." Teal'c paused. "Can O'Neill hear me?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"Soon you will understand why I wished to remove your hair, O'Neill."

Jack laughed. Teal'c looked satisfied; Daniel, puzzled. "What was THAT about?" Daniel said.

 

They returned to the VIP quarters, and watched parts of a half-dozen shows, with Jack's commentary, and then Daniel was ready to turn in for the night. Jack was willing. Jack, Daniel had noticed long since, could always sleep. Getting ready for sleep felt so awkward that when Daniel was finally stretched out in the big bed, on the barely used, scratchy sheets, everything dark except for the glow of a dimmed light in the suite's bathroom, he said, out loud this time, "Sorry for the... You know."

"_It's not you who should apologize. I pulled this stunt, and now you've lost your privacy."_

Not that Daniel was troubled by having to carry out various bodily functions with an audience; lord knew he'd had plenty of experience with communal living, both in his past on Earth and on Abydos. It was the involuntariness of it, for both of them, that seemed so embarrassing.

"_Like I said. Not your fault."_ Apparently Jack could read the confused flow of his wordless thoughts perfectly well. Odd. And a little alarming. There were things down deep in there that he really didn't want Jack to get a look at. Don't think of a pink elephant....

They were silent for a bit.

Jack said, and Daniel could almost feel him stretching out and putting his hands behind his head, "_Funny that I can't control your body at all, like we could before. Even if you intended to let me.... That was weird, being you for a few minutes, back when we first discovered that thing. And being Teal'c? For two days? Having to kelno'reem? Deal with Junior? Whoa."_

Jack's pillow talk was vaguely comforting. Like a quiet debrief. Very quiet.

_I barely remember how it was before; I was so disoriented after waking up from Machello's coma...._

"_Well, it was weird; trust me."_

_You want to try it again? See if you can move this body? Go ahead._

Daniel could tell Jack was thinking hard about raising his left arm. But once again, nothing happened.

_You're being very calm about this._

"_Not like I've got any choice, you know? Panicking never helps."_

Eventually, they fell asleep. Or rather, Daniel fell asleep. He assumed that somehow Jack did, too.

Along toward morning, Daniel dreamed. He knew that he was dreaming, and that he really shouldn't be dreaming _this_, and yet he was caught, helpless -- his mouth stopped with honey, his limbs swimming in slow motion, that pure sense of underwater clarity.

His dream-self was in bed -- a very comfortable, very luxurious bed. And making love to Jack, both of them naked. It was a confusion of smooth skin and stroking hands and liquid warmth, and desire and surprise washed through Daniel like orgasm. He'd wanted this, for such a long time, and known he could never have it. And he'd tried not to want it -- had tried so hard. It was disloyal and dangerous and wrong of him. It was a betrayal of his marriage, of the love that had first claim. But dreams don't follow the orders of the conscious mind.

In the dream, Jack was with him, open to him, totally present, wanting just as much as Daniel wanted. Nothing but warm skin and muscle. Mouths, hands, bodies, in a boneless intertwining. His mouth on Jack's cock, licking, sucking. Jack filled him, and he reveled in the taste, taking him deep without effort, his mouth moving smoothly and surely. He wanted this, and with the unshakeable conviction of dreams, he knew Jack wanted it, too. Laughing, wrestling, they made love, shifting and moving in the strange bed until at last he could feel Jack's mouth on him, Jack's fingers. Daniel writhed in delight at the building pleasure.

Daniel never wanted to wake up. Daniel needed, desperately, to wake up. All that skin. All that heat.

_"Daniel... Daniel.... God!_"

The pleasure crested and broke over him, and he fell, still swimming, tumbling helplessly into warmth and peace. Jack's smiling, blissed-out face was so clear. Daniel felt as if he were drifting in Jack's wonder, Jack's amazed surprise. Jack's knuckles, stroking his cheek. Jack's mouth, lowering to press against his.

Daniel woke. He was curled on his side, curled around a very hard, very obvious erection. With embarrassed gratitude, he noted that he hadn't come in the sheets the way he -- and Jack -- had enthusiastically and copiously climaxed just now in the dream. Small mercies. He scrubbed his face with both hands, and turned onto his stomach, then hastily flopped to his back when his dick rubbed against the mattress with a buzz of forbidden pleasure.

Okay, so, don't freak, so, these feelings weren't something to be ashamed of, inappropriate and guilt-inducing as they were (what business did he, a married man on a quest, a hugely important and at the same time utterly personal quest, have with harboring feelings like this for Jack, of all people?) but they also weren't something he had intended to share with Jack, ever. Hell, he barely wanted to acknowledge them himself. He couldn't have these feelings; they were simply wrong. Yes, it was true, he'd dreamed about Jack before, but never this vividly, this intensely. God. He closed his eyes again, and when that wasn't enough, he squeezed them shut, hard, and pressed the heels of his hands against the sockets. But there was no way to _not see_ the vivid, lingering after-images of the dream. No way to push it aside, when his heart was still pounding, his skin was still flushed, those ecstatic sensations and emotions not quite finished washing through him. There was nowhere to hide from this. And there was no way for Jack to hide, either.

Daniel sighed. _Um, did you get that? I suppose you did._

_"You need to get out more, Danny-boy, if that's looking appealing."_

Daniel felt an astonished relief that Jack could joke about it. Jack sounded strangely... happy. And not upset at all.

Feeling shocky and off balance, Daniel spoke aloud, opening his eyes. "So you did get all that." Then he was surprised at the feeling of loneliness that washed over him.

His voice, echoing in the room, reminded him, emphatically, that he really was very much alone here. Jack had felt so close, so real. And yet there was nothing to touch, now. Nothing to hold on to. And Jack! Still disembodied, still trapped. They had to fix this. They had to.

Jack was still joking. "_And satin sheets? Isn't that a little over-the-top, even for you?"_

Daniel laughed nervously, trying to get a grip, wake up, find the boundaries again. _Why can't the satin sheets have been your idea? You were there. It was your dream, too._

"_You've got a point."_ Jack sounded pensive.

The first rush of embarrassment behind him, and bolstered by Jack's apparent willingness to accept what had happened and shrug it off without any suggestion of outrage, Daniel became curious. Because, really, it was an amazing development. How could their minds have merged in that way? Until the dream, he'd been conscious only of Jack's most coherent, directed thoughts and feelings. But dreams emerge from the unconscious, or so he'd always thought. Could Jack really share that part of his mind?

_So you got all of it. You saw, um, experienced, rather, the whole thing. Was it as if you were watching someone else's dream? Or what, exactly?_

_"You're having this conversation before you have a cup of coffee?"_

_What was I thinking._

Daniel could take a hint. He was being waved off. And he was more than a little relieved to put off this exploration, truth to tell. Yes, he was curious, but the things in the dream were things he'd spent too many months pushing aside to easily discuss, even now. They were too fraught, too impossible. He focused on coffee. It was familiar work to stifle his feelings yet again.

As he heaved himself out of bed, he thought, _It was just a dream, after all. A person couldn't be held responsible for what he dreamed when asleep. And Sam will surely come up with something today._

Yes, and then Daniel wouldn't have to face this again. Surely that was for the best. They had a problem to solve. He didn't have time for guilt, or shame, or wallowing. Daniel gathered up a fresh set of BDUs, went to dress, and focused on venturing out in search of coffee.

Jack, inside his head, was silent.

A visit to the commissary. Picking up on Jack's yearning, half-articulated intention, after filling a to-go cup, Daniel sat down and ate a slice of pumpkin pie. He himself was in the habit of skipping breakfast, and maybe the pie was a silly gesture, because Jack had already told him that taste-sense was not coming through to him, but Daniel felt it was the least he could do.

Then he refilled his coffee, and, fortified, his embarrassment relegated to the shadows of the VIP suite, he went up one floor to the infirmary.

Jack's body had not changed at all, except someone had hooked up an IV. Daniel checked the label on the bag -- just a drip for hydration. He winced. Jack could only linger so long in this condition without dire consequences. They needed to solve this.

Daniel sat down in the ever-present chair at the head of the bed. He tried to think of something else, distract himself from his worry about Jack's condition. But the first thing that came back to his mind was that dream. Oh, that wouldn't do either. Couldn't he think about work? His own work, or an attempt to brainstorm a solution to this problem? Use logic to help Sam and Doctor Lee reason out the fix? But it was hard to banish those inappropriate sense-memories. Especially here, with the corporeal Jack so near, within reach.

....Jack's skin, Jack's touch....

Clenching his jaw, Daniel reached over and took Jack's hand. It was warm and lax in his own. He closed his eyes, willing the dream to recede, focusing on the feel of Jack's real hand.

"_Aw, Daniel..."_

_Sorry._

"_Look, I know this must really suck for you."_

_Apparently you know everything I think and feel now. It's extremely unnerving._

"_Whatever you say can and will be used against you."_ Daniel could readily supply Jack's grimace.

_Yeah. Like that... Surely Lee will solve this soon. Or Sam will. _

"_My money's on Carter. But yeah."_

_Jack. Under the circumstances, I have to ask you this and I hate to, but... You really weren't alarmed by the dream? Because--_

"There you are!" It was Sam, ducking a tousled head around the partition, then coming all the way in when she saw Daniel was there. She had dark smudges under her eyes and her normally careful lipstick was gone.

Daniel let go of Jack's hand and stood up quickly, as if he'd been caught at something. His coffee sloshed and he looked down and gripped it with both hands.

Sam said, "We've got something." She crossed to the phone on the wall, picked it up and dialed. "Bill? Ask the Engineering guys to go ahead and bring the machine to the infirmary. Daniel's already here."

"You've been up all night, haven't you."

"Oh, yeah, probably." She raked her fingers through her hair. "Is that hot?" And she walked over and took his coffee cup out of his hand and drank. Then she perched on the end of an empty bed, watching Jack with a serious face. In a few minutes, the machine arrived, trundled by Bill and some workers from Engineering.

"Okay," Sam said, getting up and seeming to gather her wits. "We think that one missing piece yesterday was the power boost that Bill had inadvertently created. We think that the colonel's consciousness would never have been sent as far as your body, if the power hadn't been boosted. And the other missing piece," Sam said triumphantly, "was the new programming Bill had in fact created, which does, we theorize, reverse a transfer between the same two people, which of course Machello claimed was impossible. So we're ready to actually do this now."

With Janet standing by, nurses moved Jack's hands to the machine's nearest handle, and Sam and Lee checked and rechecked their settings.

"Okay, Daniel," Sam said.

_"Well, it's been real."_

Daniel smiled at Jack's words, and stepped closer to the machine and grasped the handles on his side.

The same jarring, shocking feeling he'd felt in the elevator, only a bit less intense.

"Oh. My. God," Jack said, in his own voice, which was, miracle of miracles, coming out of his own mouth. He raised his eyebrows, looked around, and then abruptly sat up in bed. "That was ... weird. Very weird."

"Positively marsupial," Daniel muttered, stepping back a safe distance from the machine. Sam caught his words, glanced at him and laughed.

"Hey, Kanga and Roo," she said, patting Daniel's shoulder.

Jack scrubbed his face with both hands, noticed the gauze the nurses had taped on him to cover his IV puncture, and picked at it. He took inventory of the room. "Carter. Thanks."

Lee was sidling toward the door, muttering that since things were back to normal, well....

"You, I'll deal with later!" Jack roared, pointing at him. Lee scuttled away.

Daniel had backed up to the nearest wall and folded his arms. He felt fine physically. But relief was making him a little dizzy.

"Daniel," Janet said, "You should sit down. I want to watch you, make sure you don't go into shock."

" 'M fine," he said, but he came and sat down willingly on the bed next to Jack's. He couldn't stop staring. There was Jack, back in his own body. It seemed very quiet and empty in his own head now. Jack had shoved the covers back and was about to stand.

"Ah, ah, colonel," Janet said, moving to him. "I'll need to check you both thoroughly, try to make sure there are no lasting effects. I know there weren't any last time, but this was ... different."

"You can say that again," Jack said, as Sam and the engineers trundled the machine away. He caught Daniel's eye, and a regretful expression tracked across his face, quickly gone.

Janet called one of the other doctors to take Daniel's vitals while she checked Jack.

It was over.

A very relieved Hammond decided to keep SG-1 on stand-down and confine both Daniel and Jack to the base for one more day. Daniel gratefully sank into his interrupted, off-world demotic research. He declined to join Jack for lunch in the commissary when Jack poked his head in to Daniel's lab to inquire. Jack muttered something about boxing, and left.

That night, when one of Janet's minions had shooed Daniel back to his VIP suite about nine o'clock, the phone in his suite buzzed. It was Jack.

"Still chipping away at demonic inscriptions?"

Daniel bit his tongue. Jack, as he had proven the previous day, knew perfectly well what the script was called.

"Ye-es. Still watching hockey?"

"Of course. The season's not even half over yet.... Daniel?"

"Mm?"

"Meet me topside, willya?"

"We're confined to base, Jack."

"I know. We'll work something out. I need to talk to you for a minute."

"All right." Daniel hung up the phone and stared at it, his heart sinking. If Jack wanted to talk to him about something that couldn't be said over the base phones? Well. He knew what it had to be about. He sighed, and got up to find his boots.

Jack had smoothed the way for him through the checkpoints, and was standing in the mouth of the mountain's main entrance, looking at the stars, a guard a few yards away.

He turned when he heard Daniel's shuffling steps. Jack took one hand out of his pocket, as if he were going to reach for Daniel, then put it back in his pocket abruptly.

"Hi," Daniel said.

"I feel bad," Jack said, kicking at the asphalt with a toe. "I feel like a Peeping Tom. I'm not supposed to know all this stuff about you that I know, now, and if you didn't know I knew I could just drop it. But you do know. You know?" Jack finished, meeting Daniel's eye with a sad smile, inviting Daniel to join him in the joke.

"I know," Daniel said, managing to smile, but just barely.

"Look. I really do appreciate your respect for the rules we work under, even though I know you feel a lot of them are a crock of shit. Antiquated. Medieval."

Daniel frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Jack's turn to look puzzled. "The telepathy thing."

"Yes?"

"The in-each-others'-heads thing?"

"And?"

Jack cocked his head, thinking. Apparently there was new information here for him, but Daniel couldn't begin to understand what it was. Jack rubbed his hands, as if he were amazed that he once again had them to rub. "I'm going to have to go through another debrief by the medical people tomorrow. I know that. But hopefully they'll clear me to go home afterward." He met Daniel's eyes. "We can talk there, okay?"

"Talk?"

"Don't fall over dead with astonishment -- but we do need to talk. Someplace that's not here."


	2. Chapter 2

With a talent for obfuscation developed through years in black ops, Jack danced his way through another day of medical debriefing. He described his experience of living inside Daniel Jackson's head in terms as vague as he thought he could get away with. He submitted to CAT scans and MRIs and more blood work.

Finally, he got to get out of there and go home.

He breathed deeply of the outside air on the drive, like a dog hanging its head out a car window. He wandered around his house, gathered up a small pile of mail off the floor in the vestibule (nothing like the alarming avalanches of mail that piled up when he was off world), drank a beer, and decided that the best thing to do, the thing he really felt like doing, was mowing the lawn. The kid from down the street had mowed it the previous weekend, but sometimes, you just wanted to mow. And edge.

So he did. And while he did, he let himself revel. He didn't have much to revel in, but he did have that one dream. That one surprising, amazing gift of a dream. It just about made nearly getting trapped inside Daniel's cranium forever, worth it. Because never in a million years would he have suspected what he now knew about Daniel Jackson. And it made him happy. Even though it also made him feel more than a little guilty. And even though the chances of him ever getting to do anything about it were slim to none.

It was soothing to push the mower along the yard, making neat clipped rows in the green grass, smelling the sharp scent that he'd forever associate with childhood and summer. The pleasant roar of the old mower drowned out his more pensive thoughts, wiping his mental slate clean.

After he mowed, he took a long hot shower, because, you know, body! And then he examined the contents of the refrigerator, determining that since he was low on everything but beer, he would order pizza. He had his hand on the phone when the doorbell rang. He looked out. It was Daniel.

_Good. Save me the trouble of calling you and whining at you to get over here._

"I brought the pizza," Daniel said, unnecessarily, when Jack opened the door.

"Great minds think alike," Jack said. Daniel went past him without being asked in, heading for the dining room. Odd, to be looking forward to this conversation and yet not looking forward to it at all. Jack sighed, and went up to the kitchen, where he was pretty sure he had a bottle of merlot that Daniel would like. While he was there, he got another beer for himself.

When he got back to the dining room, Daniel had opened the pizza and found a roll of paper towels. Jack reached into the breakfront for a wineglass. They ate and drank in silence.

Daniel sighed and pushed the pizza box away. He sipped his wine. Jack felt he was letting Daniel twist in the wind. He'd asked for this, after all. He needed to be the one to speak up.

He made his voice as gentle as he knew how. "Look, Daniel. I just want to level the playing field, you know? All I meant last night by saying I appreciate how you're respecting the regs we live with is that, basically, I had no idea that you felt the way you do. About me. No idea at all."

"This is about the dream, right? You're really going to grill me now about something I have no control over: What I dream."

"Well, yes, the dream, but what I really mean is, I had no idea you were, you know, in love with me."

Daniel frowned at him, and his hand clutched at the tablecloth. Jack was pretty sure Daniel didn't realize he'd done that. "You saw that. You sensed it." Jack's quiet, unchanged expression was his answer. Daniel got up and began to pace. "I still don't know why you want to talk about this, because it feels very unfair. There's really nothing I can say. It feels so out of balance to have had my thoughts invaded like this. And I know that getting swapped into my head wasn't your fault. You didn't do it on purpose. But, what do you want me to do, Jack? I can resign from SG-1. I can say I'm sorry for having inappropriate feelings for you. I can't apologize to Sha're, because she's not here. What exactly do you want me to do?"

Jack watched him pace. "I don't want you to apologize. There's nothing to apologize for."

"I do know this wasn't my fault, either, not in any meaningful sense. It was a fluke. But this knowledge you have about me, it's bound to affect you. You can't un-know something. You can't go back to the state of not reacting to knowledge you don't possess. Like Eve eating the apple, you know?" Daniel leaned on the back of a chair. He wouldn't meet Jack's eyes. "I can't leave the program. This is too important to me; to do what I have to do, I can't be anywhere else. You know that. But I can leave the team, if this makes you too uncomfortable now." Daniel was examining the carving on the back of the chair. His knuckles were white. His hair hung in front of his face.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you -- it doesn't make me uncomfortable. Any more than what you found about me would make you uncomfortable. Under the circumstances."

Daniel raised his head. He looked pained. "That's just the problem, Jack, don't you see? It didn't work for me like that. I have pretty strong suspicion that you could hear and know things about me that are not under my conscious control."

"Like the dream."

"Yeah, like the dream. ....

"But you're saying you couldn't read me as much as I read you? Because you're right; I picked up on things you never said directly to me. Stuff that was floating around in the background."

"Shit. I'm so sorry, Jack. This is very embarrassing and very awkward. I was never going to tell you. You were never supposed to know." Daniel barked out a brief embarrassed laugh and began pacing again.

If all Daniel had picked up on from below the surface of Jack's mind was that amazing dream... If Daniel hadn't gotten the full-spectrum broadcast of feelings and unformed intentions that Jack had gotten from him, while they were both awake....

Daniel went on, "I feel like I'm trapped in school again and all the girls are laughing at me after they goaded me into confessing my crush on Twyla Morris."

Jack took a deep breath. The conversation he had imagined had been easier to plan when he figured that Daniel had picked up on all his feelings already, snagged them in the kind of download that Jack had gotten. Instead, he had to suck it up, and just say what he was about to say, no matter how awkward. Plus, despite everything, despite the supremely lousy timing, the futility of what he was about to express, his sense of fair play made it impossible for him to leave Daniel thinking he was the only one in the room with the problem.

Jack said, carefully, "What if Twyla couldn't give in, because she wasn't supposed to crush on geeky boys with floppy red hair and an IQ as big as the scores of two normal idiots put together? What if she was only supposed to like guys who threw the football and she couldn't admit her grand passion to you?"

Daniel had frozen in place, and was staring at Jack, looking absolutely astonished.

Jack went on, "But what if she found you later, when you weren't in a crowd, maybe tailed you, out of the drive-through of the Tastee Freez --"

Daniel, riveted, muttered, "It was eighth grade; nobody drove."

Jack smiled. "Okay, so what if she followed you home from the bus-stop one day and told you that she couldn't admit it front of anybody else, but she felt the same way, and that she hated it that those other girls were laughing at you and that she wanted to make you feel better if she could?"

Daniel, holding Jack's gaze, swallowed hard.

"Jack?"

"Well? What if that was the real story?"

"You don't really look like a Twyla."

"Well, until recently, they didn't let Twyla's make it through pilot school."

Daniel stared. Jack waited.

Daniel said, "I didn't know."

"You weren't supposed to. You couldn't. And I didn't know until just now that the head-swapping thing was different for you. That I was getting things you weren't getting from me."

Daniel sighed. "This is wonderful, in a way, and completely horrible, all at the same time."

Jack shrugged. He wanted, badly, to walk over there and fold Daniel into a hug, something that he never thought twice about doing, under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal, and besides, Daniel looked so wounded and so jumpy.

Daniel started pacing again. "I'm... I'm stunned. I am. But, you know. Nothing changes. Except I'm relieved you're not going to be angry. Or homophobic." He blinked at that, as if trying to take it in. "But I guess Twyla really was never the type to beat people up and oh my god what a ridiculous metaphor and we're dropping it right now."

Jack couldn't stand it. He walked over to Daniel, stopped him with a hand on his arm, and put his other hand at the back of his head, starting to pet his hair. Daniel let him, but he tensed up.

"I'm sor--" Jack started.

"Don't," Daniel said, and turned away, but not far enough to lose Jack's hand from his elbow.

Jack dropped his hand away from Daniel's hair. "I know you're not saying that because you don't want me to. I had the dream too, you know. And you were right. I'm pretty sure half of it was mine. It didn't feel like watching you dream. Somehow we made that happen together. Something about being unconscious, being asleep, I guess."

Daniel did step away then. "God. I shouldn't remember that. I can't."

Jack put his hands in his pockets. They itched to touch Daniel, to hold him, to comfort. But that was not welcome. Might never be welcome again. Might be too risky now. For both of them. Yeah, this sucked.

"Well," Jack said, trying for a light tone and feeling he was failing entirely, "if things had been different, ships passing in the night, the one that got away. You know." He waved his hand. It was futile, stupid. He felt awful, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Ever.

A silence fell. Daniel looked up at him, that through-his-bangs, above-his-glasses thing that always made Jack's heart turn over. After a moment, Daniel pulled his hands out of his pockets and pulled out a chair and sat down. He began fiddling with the cold, leftover slices of pizza. Taking a risk that he wouldn't be misunderstood, Jack slowly came around the table and put his hand on Daniel's shoulder.

"I'm just saying you really do have some company in there, you know? And I hope you don't blame me too much for wanting to ... occasionally ... remember that dream. _Fondly_ remember it."

"In your lonely bed at home," Daniel said bitterly. "Thinking about me."

"Yeah," Jack said, and sat down beside him. "So now you know." There was nothing else to say. He looked at the pizza and thought about eating another slice. The silence stretched out. When Daniel broke it, his voice was cold.

"We're going to find her, Jack."

Daniel's gaze was intense, but Jack returned it without flinching. "Yes. We are."

"And we can't do this," Daniel said, sounding miserable, and Jack realized Daniel was looking at his mouth. Daniel licked his lips, and Jack's breath hitched.

"I know," Jack said, and he had to clear his throat.

Daniel sat there, staring at Jack's mouth, and then Jack could see the effort it took him when he pulled his gaze away. Daniel stared into space for a moment, and then seemed to eject himself from his reverie. He glanced around, noticed his wine glass, picked it up and finished the last swallow. He stood up. So Jack did, too.

"I'm going to go now. Thanks for, ah, your honesty." Daniel stood there, looking at his toes, his hands in his pockets. In a moment he turned away. Jack let him see himself out.

^^^^

Daniel had always been proud of his ability to focus, and it served him well after the experience of having Jack in his head, and learning what he learned in the aftermath. Despite those revelations, nothing changed. It was still all about the missions. All about the work. All about tracking down every lead, every scrap of myth, cataloguing every bit of intelligence he could about the enemy, all to bring him closer to his goal of rescuing his wife. The bone-deep need to find Sha're drove him, just as it always had.

And if Jack's protective touches, his restless affectionate hands, and his quirky smile were more bittersweet than ever to Daniel, if the team nights and downtime spent at the comfortable sprawl of Jack's house meant more to him than before, well, Daniel was only human. He needed friends. He wasn't by nature a loner; his chaotic childhood and his pariah status in his field had made him one.

He needed his friends. He needed Jack most of all, risky as that relationship was now. But his purpose did not lie in the things he saw in Jack's brown eyes, when he dared to look. Daniel had a job. A mission. A duty.

And he focused on that, with all his customary intensity, until the day came when he lay beside Sha're on a trampled carpet, on the dry earth of a prison planet, and his heart broke all over again, because he'd failed, again, and because she was gone. Forever.

After Sha're's funeral service, Daniel stayed for a few days with what remained of his family on Abydos. Then he took a month off from the SGC. He had bereavement leave, and he had a lot of accumulated regular leave. On a whim, he wrote a check on his brimming bank account (not a lot of ways to spend money in the mountain or off world, since the U.S. Air Force kept him in books) and went back to Egypt. He exercised his Arabic, ate the familiar food, looked up some old acquaintances, visited a couple of digs.

Then he came back to Colorado Springs.

He was alive, he was more lonely than he thought he'd ever been in his life, and he still had a job to do for Earth. And bound up with that, inescapable, a weight on his heart, he had the new mission that Sha're had entrusted to him. He would find her son. It was all he could do for her now.

^^^^

Lockers really did bang shut with a satisfying crash. That felt good. Jack considered opening the locker again just so he could smash it shut again. He heard Daniel's familiar step behind him. Daniel sat down on the bench and began taking off his boots. He looked at Jack sidelong. Jack heard him take a careful breath, and release it. Jack sat down as Daniel stood and took off his BDU shirt. Jack had made it through the showers in record time, and was just about dressed and ready to leave. He was more than ready to put this day, and this whacked-out mission, behind him.

Daniel said, "What?"

"Why, whatever do you mean, Daniel?"

"Something you'd like to say to me?"

"Gee, something along the lines of, 'The next time you get in my line of fire, I'm taking you out, too?' Something like that?" Jack bent to pick up his own boots, then dropped them on the bench beside him with a clomp. Not as good as slamming a locker, but better than nothing, and they were ready to hand.

"I told you before--"

"Yes, this would be the part where you once again extol all the virtues of your most recent _girlfriend,_ but let me just make myself clear on this point." Jack had pulled his boots on, and he stood up. It was an effort not to shake his finger under Daniel's nose. "Don't you _ever_ stand in my line of fire again. How many times do we have to go over this, Daniel? You've been with the program for how long now?"

Daniel crossed his arms and met Jack's stare. "It was an acceptable risk."

"Unbelievable." Jack shook his head. "You are a real piece of work, Doctor Jackson. Have you not heard one single thing I've taught you about military protocol?"

"Just let it go, Jack. It's over. Everyone's okay, Kera's back--"

"Linnaea, Daniel. That woman is Linnaea, and I don't care how you want to sugar coat it, or what name you want to put on it. Destroyer of Worlds." Jack opened his locker again, collecting his wallet and his keys, stuffing them into his jeans pockets.

"Why won't you turn loose of this? I've seen you get over Goa'uld torture faster than you're getting over this."

Jack turned, heading for the door. "This conversation isn't over."

He fidgeted his way up the elevators, climbed in his truck, and roared home.

An evening of baseball and carry-out, followed by a good night's sleep, did nothing to cool Jack's anger or erase his wild wish that he had gone ahead and shot the woman while Daniel had her backed up against the wall of her bedroom. But she was gone. Jack thought it through, concluded he was calm enough to face Daniel again, and so, in the clear morning of an ordinary day on Earth, he drove to Daniel's apartment. The conversation wasn't over. They would finish it now.

He rapped on the door, and waited.

Nothing was happening inside. Jack rapped again, louder.

Eventually, Daniel answered the door, blinking at the light, without his glasses, scratching the back of his head. He was wearing a T-shirt and sweats. Jack brushed past him.

"Rise and shine, Daniel!"

"Hi?" Daniel said, making it sound like he was questioning not only Jack's entrance but Jack's sanity. Jack went straight on into the kitchen and started making coffee.

"Up late last night? Cramming for a final, perhaps?" Jack made his voice as cheery as the day outside. Daniel came closer and leaned on the counter.

"Yeah, I was up kinda late, I guess."

Jack watched the coffee machine hiss, shiver, and start to drip. He cautioned himself, again, to stay calm.

After watching him for a moment, Daniel turned away without a word and went back toward his bedroom. The sound was muffled by the intervening walls, but Jack heard the shower start up. Soon Daniel emerged again, dressed in jeans and a clean T-shirt, and with damp hair. The coffee was ready, and Jack had set out an empty cup for Daniel. He was drinking his own, standing there by the machine. It tasted great. Hot and reassuring. Daniel always had good coffee.

Daniel cleared his throat and poured himself a cup. "Was there something you wanted?"

_Yeah, one six-foot-tall, widowed archaeologist. Is that so impossible?_

Jack drank one more swallow of the fortifying coffee and set it down. Even odds that he'd be out on his ass before he could finish the cup. He squared his shoulders and faced Daniel. Daniel raised his eyebrows at the implied threat.

Jack said, "So, you're all eager to get out there on the dating market again, and it's time for a little discussion about how we need to be making good choices."

Daniel frowned. "That's why you came all the way over here and woke me up on my day off? To get in _even more_ digs about Kera?"

"No, no more digs. I have exactly one thing to say: Don't get in my line of fire. Ever again. Which you knew, or you are a hell of a lot stupider than you let on." Daniel turned away and folded his arms. "I'm serious as a heart attack, Daniel."

"I'm not having this conversation with you again! We went over and over the ethics of what she did, as Kera. She is essentially a new person, a different person." He turned back to Jack, arms still folded. "You know that."

"I know that I was overruled by both the medical expert and my CO, and the decision to let her go was out of my hands. I also know I won't forget how dangerous she is."

"Her people know what could happen. They will not allow her old memories to be revived."

Jack sighed. He'd already lost this argument once, and Daniel was right. He had no intention of having it again, and losing again. And he was also pretty sure that Daniel's apparent blind spot for that woman could not be shaken. He took a swallow of coffee to give himself a bit more time to get hold of himself, remember what his point was here. The cup made a sharp ping when he set it down again on the tile.

"Can we move on from this? 'Cuz I'm ready to move on. Here's the important thing. I repeat: don't get in my line of fire. Back in that bedroom? If she'd gone for the ampoules, I had _one second_ to stop her."

Daniel spit out his words. "If I couldn't convince her not to do it, you would have shot her and the poison would have hit the concrete floor and broken and killed us all anyway."

"No, you would have dived for the bottles and caught them. You were right there."

They stared at each other.

Jack lowered his voice. "We lucked out, all right? You know it and I know it. But I mean it: don't get between me and the target."

Daniel got that lightbulb look, as he apparently received a sudden intuitive flash of genius insight. "You were jealous."

"Duh. Of course I was jealous; that's not the point."

"I can't believe you're letting your feelings for me color your interpretation of my judgment. This should be your worst nightmare."

"This has nothing to do with my feelings for you! The line-of-fire issue is basic military discipline; it has zip to do with the fact that I'm still in love with you and always will be. Why, given that obvious fact, you chose to flirt with that woman is the thing I would bring up if I were letting it interfere with my command decisions, which I'm not!"

Daniel looked shocked. "I understand your concerns about the military issue of line-of-fire. But we agreed long ago to set our feelings for each other aside. And you know all the reasons it's impossible for us to ever act on them. Better than I do. Nothing has really changed."

Jack had to mentally count to three. _Stubborn, bull-headed, know-it-all...._

At least Daniel had acknowledged that he recognized that in theory it _might_ possibly be a good idea to stay out from in front of the barrel of Jack's gun. Jack figured acknowledgment was as close to agreement as he was ever going to get from the arrogant son-of-a-bitch on this point. And it was breathtaking -- how Daniel could accuse Jack of letting emotions color his judgment, and then dismiss those same emotions so sweepingly. Set the feelings _aside?_ Live with a hole in his heart was more like it. He grabbed at the one important thing he could actually say out loud.

"Daniel, my respect for your wife was the only reason that meant a damn thing to me. I thought you knew that. And how long has it been since her funeral? What kind of jerk would I be, bringing all that stuff between us, up again so soon? Come on."

Daniel walked away. Jack followed him, stopping when he arrived in the middle of the living room while Daniel went to the picture window. Jack waited, but Daniel just stood there, gazing out. Jack had his own light-bulb moment.

"Ah. So, you've talked yourself out of believing that I really meant it when I said it the first time. So, you think, Jack, yeah, says he loves me, but does he really go for guys? How likely is that really. Maybe Jack could just be a jealous possessive asshole, huh? You could believe that. It would explain a lot. But not the whole enchilada? Not the real thing? Not love? That's what Colonel Hard Ass would never feel? Never really fall for the archaeologist? Well, let me help you out with this. I was in your head, remember? We dreamed, together, the most earth-moving orgasm I've probably ever had. That was making love, Daniel. That was years of my fantasy life, compressed into a few minutes I still think about. It's just a fact: I love you, Daniel, and I still can't believe you would flirt with that... Kera person ... when you _knew_ that, and when I'm _right here._ Unless you've changed your mind about how you feel about me." As Jack spoke, Daniel had started pacing. And after an anguished glare from him when Jack paused, Jack appended triumphantly: "Which I don't think you have."

"Jack. No matter how we feel, it's a terrible idea. We simply can't-- Your feelings-- for me--" and Daniel stumbled over the words, like he really couldn't believe them, "-- are most certainly compromising your command of the team."

"Don't insult me. I've been way past the letter of the frat regs with all three of you since the first month SG-1 was together. Whether you ever shack up with me in a VIP suite or not! This is not news!" Yeah, it was a low blow, but Daniel had it coming. Jack softened his voice. "You really think that us finally hooking up would compromise my judgment worse than falling in love with you years ago already has?"

Daniel took a breath and hugged himself, and he didn't stop pacing. Jack thought he looked like a caged animal. "Even if I still felt the same, it's simply too dangerous. For both of us. We can't afford to jeopardize our places on the team, or your career in the Air Force. It's just better if we leave it this way."

"Like falling for someone like Linnaea wasn't dangerous? Please. That's a completely baseless excuse and you know it."

That blue glare again, but Daniel was calm now. His voice took on a lecturing air. "If we get involved, it would create evidence that could be used to blackmail both of us. Until now, there's been nothing for the NID to find. If we got together, there would be. We need to not be blackmailable."

"Blackmailable? Is that even a word?"

Daniel smiled, but it was just a brief flash. He stopped his nervous pacing and looked at Jack, a wordless plea for Jack to just drop it, already. Jack shook his head.

"I've been in your head, in your body. Twice now. Do you think getting to enjoy it for a change will make that much difference?"

"We can't take the risk," Daniel murmured, but Jack could see that Daniel was looking at his mouth.

Jack stepped closer and said softly, "My command is already compromised in the way you mean. Everything we do as a team is too close. This stuff we have to do, it's unlike any assignment I've ever had in my life." Daniel wasn't moving away. Jack put a hand on Daniel's forearms, still wrapped tightly around his middle. "If breaking the frat regs is all you're worried about, just stop it."

Daniel was looking down at Jack's hand. After a long moment, he raised his gaze again to Jack's face, staring into Jack's eyes, and then at Jack's mouth. He looked transfixed.

He raised his hand, slowly, and put the palm against Jack's cheek. Jack closed his eyes.

Nothing else happened. Jack was intensely aware of Daniel's hand on his skin, how the touch made his heart race, made him feel the thud of his blood in the pulse point just under his jaw. Jack waited, and finally he opened his eyes again. Daniel seemed frozen in the moment, unable to move forward or back. And then Daniel closed his eyes, and closed the distance between them.

^^^^

Jack's lips were soft, as soft as he'd always imagined they'd be, as soft as they'd felt in the dream. He could feel Jack's pulse throbbing under his hand. He rested his lips against Jack's, just feeling their warmth. Jack was perfectly still, just letting him.

He was against this. It was too dangerous, too selfish, too stupid. It wasn't like them, to risk everything for passion like this. He knew he was right in all his carefully marshaled arguments against it. But logic was absolutely no use to him here.

The solid, beloved reality of Jack in his living room, coaxing, accusing. Jack had always had the ability to command Daniel's attention. It was always an effort to tear his focus away from Jack when Jack was nearby. Sometimes this worked to Daniel's advantage, grounding him and keeping him from drifting off into his own obsessions. Sometimes it interfered drastically with Daniel's priorities and his work. Now, Jack was warping reality, gathering up all Daniel's perceptions until it seemed that there was nothing in the room, nothing anywhere, but Jack's warmth, his scent, his touch.

Daniel had tried to resist. But since Sha're's death, the pull that Jack had on him had only gotten stronger. He'd attacked Jack's self-control a few minutes ago, with ridiculous paper-thin protests. But the protests were lies. Rationalizations. A frantic attempt at denial. He was in as deep as Jack was. And Jack knew it.

Jack had stilled, accepting Daniel's hesitant kiss, but now, sensing that Daniel was stuck again, Jack was moving, a hand coming up to cup the back of Daniel's head, the other creeping around his waist, pulling him closer. Jack was kissing him back, still a little tense, his heart still racing.

Jack's soft lips, moving gently against his, parting hesitantly.

_We can't. We shouldn't.... But we already are._

Jack was tasting him, moving slowly, as if fearful he would spook Daniel. The idea that Jack would have to manage him, treat him so tenderly, as if he were fragile, made Daniel smile. Him? In need of careful handling? What a joke. He tightened his hand against the side of Jack's face and put his other hand on the small of Jack's back. Jack felt him smile, and smiled back, against Daniel's lips.

This was too much. This was reckless and crazy and oh my god it felt so good, too good, to have Jack close against him like this. So warm, so strong. It was making Daniel's heart pound and his dick fill.

Everything he'd always wanted. Everything he was about to have.

On a wave of old, old yearning, Daniel tilted his head a little more and opened his mouth.

Jack made a smothered moan, and Daniel softened his lips and sealed the kiss tighter, inviting, and Jack pulled him closer and there was his tongue. Daniel's turn to moan, electricity racing along his spine, settling in his balls and his fingertips, as he let Jack in.

He sucked on Jack's tongue and pressed their groins together. It was a shocking intimacy, kissing like this. Jack's hands were roaming, up Daniel's back, getting under his loose shirt to find skin, exploring the ridge of his spine, the shape of his shoulder blades. Moving slowly back down to grip Daniel's buttocks and press their bodies even more firmly together. Jack kept kissing, kept his insistent aggressive tongue in Daniel's mouth.

Arousal hot enough to burn coursed through Daniel. He should have predicted how strongly he'd react to the feel of Jack's hands on his ass, the grind of Jack's erection against his own. He let go of Jack's jaw and slid that arm around Jack's neck, changing the kiss, asserting in his turn, pressing back and exploring Jack's mouth. Jack moaned again and yielded, still holding Daniel close. Daniel could feel the pulse beating in his groin, even through their clothes. He tasted Jack's mouth. He couldn't get close enough.

It was getting hard to breathe through his nose, and his glasses were in his way. He took his mouth from Jack's, lingering, licking a little, and opened his eyes. The stunned emotion he saw on Jack's face was still a surprise, even with everything they'd said. He simply wasn't used to seeing Jack that unguarded. Daniel licked his lips. He fumbled his glasses off one-handed and realized they were still standing there in the middle of his living room, and there was no table or shelf near enough to toss them on.

Jack held his gaze, and moved his hands to Daniel's waist. He took a half step back. Then he shifted his gaze to Daniel's mouth and leaned in for a soft, short kiss.

"I like it when you stop fighting me," Jack said, very quietly.

Daniel grinned and shook his head, refusing to agree that he'd conceded to anything. He traced Jack's cheekbone, his touch feather light.

"You know this is crazy," he whispered. Jack turned his head into Daniel's touch, closing his eyes for a moment. Then he opened them again, and there was humor, along with the obvious lust.

"Yeah, but we're doing it anyway."

Daniel returned that soft kiss. Then he asked, "And what, exactly, do we want to be doing."

"We've already had coffee. So I say we go back to bed."

"That's pretty decadent -- going back to bed in the middle of the morning."

"Stick with me and we can get a bunch more decadent than that."

Daniel stepped back. He glanced at his glasses, then glanced at Jack's face. Crazy and decadent and dangerous didn't begin to cover this.

"Ah! You're not talking yourself out of it now," Jack said, grinning. "We're gonna be reckless, and we're gonna be reckless with each other. Just us. Come on."

Jack nudged his arm, turning Daniel toward the bedroom door, and started walking. He looked back once, to make sure Daniel was behind him, and then, still walking, he stripped off his shirt and let it dangle from one hand. Daniel, a half step behind, could see he was loosening his belt.

Inside the bedroom, Daniel set down his glasses and stripped off his own T-shirt. As he dropped it to the floor, Jack's arms came around him again, and his mouth met Daniel's in a kiss that was almost a collision. Just skin, now, chest against warm chest, and Jack wrapped him tight and kissed him like he was never going to get to do it again, holding nothing back.

This was what Daniel had wanted; only this. No one else. Despite Daniel's reservations, despite his anxious flirting and avoidance after Sha're's loss, Jack had maneuvered him to this moment and he had to admit he didn't want to stop. His overthinking and hesitation were being drowned, again, in a rush of arousal. He could feel Jack's renewed erection pressing at his jeans, and he could feel the press of Jack's belt buckle and the teeth of his fly. Still holding him close, Jack wormed his other hand between them to work on Daniel's buttons, but Daniel let go and stepped back.

They quickly stripped out of their remaining clothes. So familiar, so strange, the athletic lean body now revealed to him. Glimpsed in a thousand trips to the shower, but never really seen until now. Jack, looking as amazed as Daniel felt, came close. Looking down, he slid one hand around Daniel's hip, while his other hand curled along Daniel's shaft. No hesitation, just a gentle, careful touch. Daniel had to close his eyes at the burst of pleasure from the friction. Just one 'get acquainted' stroke, slowly, all the way up and all the way down, and then Jack let go to move away, backing up to lie down on Daniel's lonely bed.

Daniel followed, his skin aflame from that one stroke of Jack's hand, and he slid along Jack to lie full length on top of him. Jack's eyes fell shut as Daniel brought their bodies together, and he moaned and rolled his hips up against Daniel's.

Kisses pressed to Jack's throat, his jaw, and Jack tilted his chin, so Daniel kept it up, moving back and up along the soft line of skin to his ear, nuzzling and nipping. Jack moaned, clutching Daniel's buttocks again, and started to move his hips insistently. Daniel pressed his face into Jack's neck and held on. After a little while he felt Jack pressing at his ribs with the flat of one hand, wanting to turn, and Daniel rolled to his side, not moving away, and with the new angle he opened his eyes.

Jack was watching him, his lips slightly parted, and Jack's hand crept down, trailing along Daniel's side, to close around his dick. Daniel gasped, tried to hold Jack's gaze, and fumbled his own hand down to match Jack's grip as the delicious, oblivion-inducing strokes began again.

Jack's cock was hard and warm and perfect in his hand. So simple, so good. Daniel surrendered.

^^^^

Jack swallowed and tried to slow his breathing. Daniel's skin was hot all over, and he was so smooth and pale compared to Jack's own brown, scarred hide. Jack watched, his focus narrowed to the feel of Daniel's erection in his hand, while his eyes drank up the expression he was putting on Daniel's beautiful face by touching him like this.

He winced, pleasure overloading, when he felt Daniel's hand close around his own dick. Hard to concentrate, to watch the tiny changes in the corners of Daniel's eyes, the way his breath was coming faster past his wet lips. Feeling so much now -- the building burn of orgasm, the involuntary slight buck of his hips, the way Daniel's dick was leaking in Jack's steady hand.

So so sweet, the sliding, shared friction. Jack managed to keep his eyes open, his desire to see this -- to watch Daniel's ecstasy -- stronger than the undertow of his own arousal.

Not long, not long at all until the irresistible red rush, the endless moment poised on the brink, and then Jack was coming, trying to keep his hand moving to bring Daniel with him over the edge. His other hand was still anchored to that sweet spot where Daniel's hip curved into his lower back, and he felt the spasms of Daniel's orgasm begin, telegraphed into both of his hands, and all along their tangled legs.

Daniel moaned as he shot, and rolled in, collapsing against him as Jack collapsed too. They lay there, panting and messy, leaning together like two sides of an arch.

The ebb of the intensity of climax usually put Jack right down into a doze, but he didn't want to sleep now. He didn't want to miss any of this. He took a deep breath and leaned back enough to bring all of Daniel's face into focus.

Daniel looked wrecked -- amazed and sated, his short hair ruffled, his face without glasses oddly vulnerable. As if feeling Jack's gaze, Daniel opened his eyes. Jack crinkled his, not quite a smile, and Daniel did, in fact, smile in answer, but he had that line of concern between his eyes again. Jack reached up with his dry hand and smoothed that little wrinkle with his thumb, and Daniel sighed and let his forehead relax, as if Jack had been able to make Daniel obey an order. Jack felt Daniel begin petting along his side, slow easy strokes, familiar and soft, like Daniel was entirely at home with Jack's body, like he'd done this before, like he knew exactly how to touch him.

So many questions they could ask, about experience, about what they wanted and what they liked in bed. Maybe later. Maybe never in words. Jack was conscious of a fierce desire to please Daniel and to go on pleasing him, to be the best he'd ever had, to take away any yearning Daniel would ever feel for anyone else.

But for now, Jack had what he wanted. He had Daniel, right here, their unspoken bond acknowledged, the wall they'd barricaded their feelings behind finally breached. He had Daniel. He pressed his face against Daniel's neck, as Daniel had done to him earlier, and put a kiss there.

They were getting very sticky. They'd pretty much thoroughly creamed Daniel's bedspread.

Jack inhaled against Daniel's skin, taking in the sweet rich scent of their come, Daniel's own warm smell, a little sweat, a faint hint of laundry detergent. "Stay right here," Jack breathed into Daniel's ear. He levered himself up, and went in search of a towel and a bottle of water, and came back right away with both. He felt an irrational and very giddy joy.

He stood by the side of the bed and drank, with Daniel quietly watching him, and then handed him the bottle as Daniel heaved up on one elbow. Jack wiped up Daniel's belly and his groin, then his own, scrubbed a little at the wet spot, then dropped the towel on the floor and got back on the bed. Daniel ditched the empty bottle and came right into his arms.

Jack nuzzled his ear, kissing the shell, leaned up on his own elbow to follow Daniel's sideburn back to his mouth, and kissed that, getting reacquainted. Then he rested his head against the side of Daniel's, just feeling it, feeling this man in his arms, the long strong press of his muscle and skin. Feeling this was like coming home.

^^^^

A silent, invisible whirlwind of thoughts, blessedly blotted out by orgasm, returned to plague Daniel. He let Jack hold him close, and tried not to think, but it was futile.

What should they do now? This was too wonderful, too perfect. Too much to hope for; too precious to keep. Fear of the consequences threaded through his glorious post-orgasmic lethargy. He closed his eyes, shivers running along his shoulder as Jack kissed him and held him. He felt powerless to refuse this, as much as he knew he should. He put his arms around Jack again and waited to see what would happen next.

Jack pressed himself along the length of Daniel's body, and since Daniel had ended up more or less below him, after the drink and the wipe-up, it was easy to use both hands to explore a little, to simply touch the expanse of skin now on offer. Daniel ran gentle palms along Jack's back, enjoying the curves of solid muscle, down along his waist, along the firm curve of his ass (that drew a shiver and a slight push of Jack's hips), as far as he could reach through the wiry hair that began almost immediately at the top of Jack's thigh.

Almost too much to believe, that Jack had come to him, that they had ended up here, despite the argument. He bent a knee, pressing the bottom of his foot against the swell of Jack's calf, stroking there, too. It made him feel a little less like he was floating away on a tide of endorphins and amazement.

"You're thinking too much," Jack said, a smile in his voice, and he pulled away, their warm skin sticking just a little, and Daniel had to look at him again -- the brown hair going grayish, the happy crinkles at the corners of those bottomless eyes, a glad kind of smile that Daniel was pretty sure he'd never seen before, the smooth length of his neck, the prominent collar bones, the dark chest hair curling around flat nipples. Gorgeous. Too good to be true.

And Jack leaned in again, kissing along Daniel's collar bone, and Daniel put a hand on Jack's shoulder and hitched himself to lie down again. There were things Daniel supposed he should ask, things about their sexual history, their preferences, but on the other hand, that could all wait. He found himself reluctant to cut into the pure sensual immersion of this experience with the abstraction of words spoken out loud.

Jack kept kissing him, collar bone and the hollow of his throat, and Jack hitched a little down in the bed and then Daniel outright gasped in surprise when Jack put his mouth to Daniel's nipple, sucked for a moment, and swiped around it with his tongue. The nipple firmed immediately, pressing into Jack's mouth. Jack nibbled a little, then released him with a smile, as if to say he'd learned something he'd be able to use later, and he kept going, kissing down Daniel's body, getting up on his elbow, scrunching toward the foot of the bed, smoothing the way with his hands on Daniel's skin, and suddenly with a heave and an athletic, effortless turn he'd flipped himself lengthwise and his mouth was against Daniel's cool, soft dick.

Daniel's head dropped to the pillow in astonishment. Jack's hot mouth, his busy tongue, slowly explored the length of him, and then Jack pulled him right inside, soft as he was, sucking gently.

Daniel made an inarticulate sound of approval, and opened his eyes. Jack's groin was right there, and Jack was starting to get hard again, amazingly enough, apparently from tasting Daniel. So Daniel pushed his face in, inhaling the rich scent, and opened his mouth.

He was surprised at how quickly he was getting hard again himself, but the warm suction of Jack's mouth was irresistible. It was a complete feedback loop, and without hurry, moving slowly and carefully, Daniel tasted, and licked, and shifted his weight against Jack's in small careful increments, and eventually found himself on top, braced on his elbows, Jack's head between his thighs, one hand curled around Jack's tight balls, with Jack's cock filling his mouth while he delicately, smoothly pushed into Jack's.

All sense of time faded. The endless buildup to orgasm was sweet and languid. Once again, Daniel found himself mindlessly moaning, moving in tandem with Jack, his groin tendons stretched with each thrust, bright spangles moving up and out when Jack pressed the heel of his hand behind Daniel's balls.

So good, so good.... Daniel felt he would hang on the edge forever, yet finally with a choked shout he came, feeling Jack swallow in a blur of ecstatic sensation, feeling barely able to stay coordinated enough to keep his mouth sealed around Jack and swallow, too.

The fast pulses slowed and gradually stopped. It was as if the boundaries of where he began and Jack ended were erased. Daniel moaned, still leaning shakily on his elbows, trying to get his breath, unwilling to let Jack slide out of his mouth quite yet. He rocked his tongue gently against the sweet spot, that notch near the tip, drawing a groan from Jack that vibrated deliciously around and through his own skin. Jack's hands separated, moved, smoothed down and around Daniel's buttocks, making him twitch and chuckle. Still holding Jack in his mouth, he started to pull himself away, but Jack gave him more suction, as if to keep Daniel in his mouth.

"Oh, god," Daniel said, or tried to say, the words barely formed around Jack's softening dick. The final burst of sensation was almost too much, and he pulled free and sagged his hips to one side. Jack kept petting him.

Daniel drew his own mouth away from Jack, and replaced it with his cupped hand. They lay there until Daniel's arm started to go to sleep. He sat up and flipped himself around, dragging his legs over Jack, finally coming to lie on his side, facing him.

Jack regarded him peacefully.

"Wow," Daniel said, feeling unusually stupid and inarticulate. Which was a compliment to the intensity of the sex, he supposed.

Jack said, nothing, just smiled a little and put a hand on Daniel's ribs. What had Jack said earlier? About having been inside him, traded bodies, shared minds -- and that this wouldn't be any worse than that could be, for their relationship. Even at work. It could only be better. Much much better. A ripple of recent body memory coursed through him -- the reality of intertwining bodies, alongside that one incredible dream.

Daniel decided he agreed with Jack's assessment.

"You were right," he said.

"I'm always right," Jack returned, not missing a beat, quick as any standup comedian. Daniel grinned.

"I meant specifically what you said, a little while ago. We've been in each other's heads already. For a long time, metaphorically. Now, literally. So in a way this is just kind of the last step."

"The final straw. The last frontier. The icing on the cake, as it were."

Daniel shook his head. He supposed he should be relieved that Jack didn't feel a need to get serious about this right now. It meant he was relaxed. No, it meant... Jack was... Jack looked... _happy._ Simply that. Relaxed, and happy, his hair tousled, his expression a little sleepy. His hands still moved, though, as always, fidgeting, petting Daniel.

Happy. In the moment. And yet the moment couldn't last forever.

Daniel frowned. "If this makes it harder for you to do your job; if this means favoritism?"

Jack's voice was full of quiet certainty. "We can make it work."

"If someone finds out. Your record, your career...."

"They won't."

Daniel shut up, stopped for the moment by Jack's utter confidence. He remembered being amazed like this when Jack was in his head. He remembered how Jack had taken that in stride. How certain and goal-oriented he always was, no matter the challenge or the emergency. Jack was so sure they could make this work. No matter what.

Daniel gave in, once again, helpless in the face of that reckless optimism, that defiance of fate. It must have shown in his face, because Jack quirked a smile, nodded as if he was agreeing with what Daniel hadn't said, and leaned in to kiss him.

END


End file.
